Routines That Suffocate, Fears That Imprison

Routines protect so much that sometimes they can turn into a real prison.

Establishing them saves us from making hundreds of decisions on a daily basis, which we would have to adopt if we had not defined these fixed habits.

But they also install us in a way of doing things, which translates into a pattern of thoughts and feelings that do not change.

The cost of routines can be very steep. Yes: they are necessary. It is a practical way to manage your daily life. But at the same time, and imperceptibly, they transform into a form of life in which we take refuge and where we end up being afraid of change.

It is usual to meet people who live immersed in a routine but who constantly deny it. They sigh, they take their heads and say that they are bored because everything is always the same. Yet they don’t feel the strength to say “stop”.

Thus, to overcome the dictatorship of routines, it is necessary to have a good dose of courage,

In addition, it is essential to have a sufficiently important motivation and enough self-confidence to be able to break the pattern and enter the path of uncertainty.

The bewitching effect of routines

The worst part about establishing and maintaining routines is the gradual numbness that results. It’s not that we stop feeling, but that we end up classifying everything we feel. You start to feel like anything that is unfamiliar is dangerous. The new and the different become a kind of threat.

The routine is a scaffolding made up of many parts. It contains how you manage your regular schedules and ends up embracing your whole world view. You end up believing that there is only one way to feel, think, and act. That you have understood, finally, all of reality and that the questions no longer need to be.

Routine decreases your curiosity, reduces your capacity for surprise. But most of all, it makes you deaf and blind to your own potentials. You end up believing that you are only doing what you can do and that it will be impossible for you to act or live in any other way.

The result is a certain state of drowsiness. With routine, you live by the principles of doing things and not for the purpose of growing or being happy. And worse than that: you start to see routine as your great achievement and you are afraid of anything that can alter it.

The fear of change. Resistance to change 

Living with passion is a real gift, which many cannot or do not want to take advantage of. It means feeling a simple interest in the developing work. A genuine love for people with whom we have links. A real enthusiasm for the plans for the future and all that remains to be done.

Why do so many people see life pass before their eyes and instead try to “burn time” rather than live intensely? The answer is unique: it is fear that locks them into a routine that serves as their shell. This will prevent them from being confronted with novelty, with challenges.

Change is this: a challenge. The challenges facing conventions, facing habits, facing the security that makes us do the same thing, over and over again, so as not to have to think too much. Even when the routine is filled with unpleasant situations, many put up with it because it is more acceptable than change, which is scary. This would mean stepping out of your comfort zone and having to sharpen your abilities to cope with unfamiliar situations.

How to overcome the fear of breaking out of the routine?

Each person should do what they want to do, the way they want to do it, with whom they want and where they want. No one should be resigned to working or living as they don’t want to, just for fear of change. 

Of course, no one can throw it all away overnight. Even if, in reality, it is possible. But a lot of people need a more paused process to be successful. It is obvious that it is not always good to break everything, but that it is enough to reclaim certain spaces to be yourself. How to start? What to do to get out of these routines that lock up?

• Find time for yourself. As demanding and important as your job is, it cannot be more important than yourself. There is a part of your time that you have to devote exclusively to yourself. It’s those times in life that you need to focus on what you really want: sleeping, eating, dancing, etc. The important thing is that you feel that you are only doing what gives you pleasure.

• You have to play. The game will never be eradicated. The game understood as a diversion is a space of freedom par excellence. In the game, you re-create, you build new meanings of who you are. Play cards, play basketball, play whatever you want, but play. Warning: do not watch other people play. You have to be a player!

• Don’t lose touch with nature. Nature has a positive effect on emotions and thinking. So, it is very important that you find the way to be in contact with the green of the plants and with the particular way that animals have to interact. Nature helps us connect with ourselves and this allows us to recognize the changes we need to make.